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Charles S. Rogers, Publisher
Mt. Pleasant Daily News, September 12, 1939
| Human interest is all about us. We may run into it head on or at the
turn of a corner. We may find it in forest, or stream, or dig it up with
a shovel or bring it to the light with the stub of the toe. But in the
case of Prof. Willis Bell, it hit him squarely in the eye. ~~~~ You see it was like this. The professor was playing in his wife's garden when a gleam at his feet attracted his attention. He stooped down and picked up a heavy gold ring. Supposing that his wife had lost hers, and said nothing to him about it, Mr. Bell took his find to the house. ~~~~ But the ring was not hers. After it was cleaned, it was examined and here is what they discovered--a buried romance indeed. The ring was a woman's wedding ring of the old type, plain, heavy 18k gold. On the inside was beautifully engraved in old English script this 'Kase to Ella'. ~~~~ And here is the human interest of it. The Bell home, 108 West Second street, is built on what was early known as the old Avery place, and later as the Leisenring place. Many of our older people remember the fine old Leisenring home, big, square, roomy, with its fine shade trees, and the atmosphere of hospitality. And above all, the personalities of Kase and Joe Leisenring. What old home in town does not possess photographs done by the Leisenring galleries. ~~~~ Kase Leisenring married Ella Avery and took his bride to rule over the old home where the Bell residence now stands. There can be little doubt that the ring was either the engagement or the wedding ring which Kase Leisenring gave to Ella Avery. All these years, well over half a century, the ring has been lying there under the earth. Where it was found has been under garden cultivation. Close by there has been excavations and earth moving. ~~~~ Of the Averys little is remembered of that fine old early family. Of the Leisenrings, there is little left locally, but pleasant memories and memorial stones our at Forest Home. Kase to Ella. That was their troth. Side by side they sleep out in Forest Home. But that golden circlet is romantically living and the precious metal of its structure, like truth and goodness, will always gleam and preserve its romance. ~~~~ Was glad to meet again Dr. John Willits, he of the fine old Willits family, which took rootage in our soil four generations ago. Dr. Willits and Mrs. Willits are here visiting at the Robert Willits and Ruth Willits homes in Marion township, on the way to their home at Muskegon, Mich., where the Doctor is pastor of the Congregational church. Dr. Willits is an old grad of Iowa Wesleyan and for many years a member of its board of trustees. [Note: Kase Leisenring married Ella Avery on November 18, 1873] |